Force India News

[Anna]

Team Info

Base: Silverstone, UK
Team Principle: Vijay Mallya
Chassis: Force India VJM04
Engine: Mercedes Benz
1st Driver: #14 Adrian Sutil
2nd Driver: #15 Paul Di Resta
3rd Driver: Nico Hulkenberg
Website: www.forceindiaf1.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/clubforce
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_India

Statistics

Year Entered: 2008*
1st Grand Prix: 2008 Australian GP
Races: 68
Wins: 0
Best Race Pos: 2nd (2009 Belgian GP)
Pole Positions: 1
Fastest Laps: 1
Points: 129
Drivers Championships: 0
Constructors Championships: 0
Highest Championship Pos: 7th (2010)
Current Championship Pos: 6th (48 Points)

Recent Championship Positions

2010: 7th (68 Points, 0 Wins)
2009: 9th (13 Points, 0 Wins)
2008: 10th (0 Points, 0 Wins)

Driver History

Adrian Sutil (2008-Present)
Giancarlo Fisichella (2008-2009)
Vitantonio Liuzzi (2009-2010)
Paul Di Resta (2011-Present)

Engine History

Ferrari (2008)
Mercedes (2009-Present)

Notable Achievements
1st Indian Team in F1

* Originally entered in 1991 as the Jordan Team. The team changed owenership several times in the mid 00's before becoming Force India at the end of 2007

[Anna]

Italy 2011 - GP Preview - Force India Mercedes


Team quotes

Tuesday 6 September 2011 - 13h01, by Olivier Ferret
Dr. Vijay Mallya, Team Principal: “Looking back on the last three races I am very pleased with the performances we have shown. Three strong points finishes on the trot have earned us 20 points and taken us a step closer to sixth place in the constructors’ championship. It’s a clear sign that we are delivering as a team on all levels and our season is now gathering some real momentum.

I particularly enjoyed the last race in Spa where the racing was excellent. I felt Adrian’s seventh place was a fair reflection of our pace and a good recovery after our difficult qualifying session. At the same time we were fortunate because both cars picked up quite a lot of damage during the first corner and were lucky to finish.

The target now is to get both drivers in the points and I’m hopeful Monza will give us a chance to do that. The VJM04 worked well at Spa and the drivers were happy with the balance in low downforce trim. That’s a good sign for Monza where we take another step down on the downforce levels.

Italy in September is a wonderful place to visit and is a great venue for a motor racing. There is a great tradition at Monza which, along with the passionate tifosi, helps make this one of the most enjoyable races of the season.”

Adrian Sutil

Adrian, what do you think of Monza?

“I enjoy it and I have good some memories there. It’s where I had my best result two years ago when I qualified on the front row and finished fourth. It’s a classic circuit, one of the old tracks, and you feel the history when you arrive there. And the Italian fans always give Monza a great atmosphere.”

The team has been fast there in the past – do you expect that again?

“I think our car is more consistent on all tracks rather than just being strong on the quick circuits. Also, because everyone is now using DRS and KERS, the advantage of our straight-line speed is not so significant. It’s still a fast car, but we were seventh in Hungary on a high downforce circuit and got the same result in Spa on a low downforce circuit. So it’s a very consistent car now and I expect a good race at Monza.”

There will be two race DRS zones – what do you think of that?

“This is very good for the racing because Monza has always been a track where it is difficult to overtake. Two zones gives us a chance to see lots of action this year.

Paul Di Resta

Paul, is it true you’ve never raced at Monza?

Yeah, in all my years of racing it’s just one of those tracks where I’ve never raced. In fact, free practice last year was my first experience of the track.

What did you think of the place?

I loved the track. It’s so fast but you also need to be aggressive and use the kerbs to get the laptime. And because it’s so low downforce, you have to adapt and drive in a different way. You need to be very precise on the brakes too, because it’s easy to lock a wheel and if you miss your braking by just a metre it can cost you a lot.

You have family in Italy - does that make it a special race for you?

You obviously treat every race with the same importance, but some races definitely feel a bit more special if you have an emotional connection. That’s the case with Italy because I’ve got family living there and some Italian blood in me!

What are your expectations for the VJM04 at Monza?

I’m fairly optimistic that Monza will suit us. In the past we were very strong there, but we have a different philosophy now and the car has worked well on all circuits. It’s going to be another close midfield fight but I believe we can come away with some points.

Monza Talking Points

All F1 teams have to make special preparations for Monza to deal with the high-speed nature of the Italian track, and that means preparing a bespoke low downforce aero package. Circuit Engineering Director, Dominic Harlow, explains how Force India prepares for the fastest race of the season.

Dominic, how different is the aerodynamic package for Monza?

“Monza always requires a new rear wing. You run about 80 - 85% of your maximum downforce and there’s a similar reduction of drag to about 75% of our total. The efficiency of the car goes up a little bit at those levels. Coupled with that, this is the first time that we’ve gone there with DRS.”

When did you do the wind tunnel work for Monza, given the summer shutdown must have affected your schedules?

“It was at the end of June and beginning of July that we started to look at it. We test mostly at the higher downforce levels and probably spent a week or so just on Monza. The parts would have been released about eight weeks ago. Had we not had the shutdown, we would have turned that around a bit faster.”

There are two independent DRS zones for the race – the start/finish straight and between the second Lesmo and Ascari. Did you expect that?

“It’s interesting that the FIA hasn’t set it before and after the Parabolica, on the basis that you might catch someone, maintain a minimum gap in the Parabolica, and then be able to make a pass on the pit straight. I guess they reasoned that was possible already and overtaking into Parabolica would be very difficult, so they’ve tried it in the other area for perhaps a larger laptime advantage for the trailing car. They are very rigorous in the method they apply to determine the zone and it seems to be working well.”

With the Monza wing the DRS gain is less, but any extra speed must be useful?

“Yes, the effect will be quite a bit smaller, because the amount of downforce the wing is generating is less. You’ve got 80% of the maximum downforce on the car, but the reduction comes nearly all from the wings. Given that the wings are roughly 30% each of the overall load, with the rest coming from the floor, it cuts quite a lot of their authority.”

We always look at rear wings at Monza, but how much does the front change?

“You’ve got to balance the downforce, so we reduce the capability of the front wing accordingly. Also, Monza is not a track that demands a forward aero balance because you want a reasonable amount of braking stability and entry stability, so we tend to run a little bit more rearwards and therefore less front wing. It’s fairly easy to achieve that with a flap change.”

We’ve seen recently that the car has been competitive on all kinds of tracks. Do you think you will still have an edge at Monza over the teams you are usually fighting against?

“I would hope that we’ve still got the upper hand. I think we’ve got nothing to fear, but equally there’s no reason to be more bullish than anywhere else. Get it right and you’ll go well, get it wrong and it’s easy to mess up.”

[Anna]

Force India Mercedes


Free practice objectives:
FP1 - Monza specific aero package validation, wing level set-up, general car and brake set-up
FP2 - Tyre comparison, suspension comparison, cooling set-up

Adrian Sutil: “Two straightforward sessions for me. The car had a bit of oversteer this morning, especially in Parabolica, but the general feeling was pretty good straightaway. In the afternoon I felt quite happy with the aero balance but we will need to explore all the options this evening to make sure we make the right call on the downforce levels for the race. We didn’t look especially competitive on the timesheets today so it’s clear we need to think hard about how we approach tomorrow. In terms of tyres, things look okay. I did long runs on both the medium and soft compounds and they both lasted quite well, so should not cause us any worries.”

Paul Di Resta: “Monza is not the easiest of tracks to get up to speed on. There are so many big stops on the brakes and it took me a while to find my rhythm this afternoon. Otherwise it was a typical Friday session without any dramas. We obviously concentrated on trying to find the best aero balance and worked on the stability of the car under braking. What we have is a good baseline and not too far away, but once we’ve been through all the data we should have a better idea of where we can improve for tomorrow. It’s also clear that we need to find some speed overnight because the times around the middle of the pack are very close.”

Nico Hulkenberg: “It always takes a while to adjust to the low downforce levels, but to be honest I felt comfortable from the start of the session. The car was pretty stable and we didn’t have to work too much on the balance. Like everyone we used the first session to experiment with different wing levels to see the effect on laptime. As for the tyres, I only ran one set of the mediums and felt very positive because they held on quite well and the degradation levels were not too bad.”

Dominic Harlow, Circuit Engineering Director: "A high test demand on our free practice programme today in Monza. We needed to evaluate tyre performance for a slightly modified soft tyre against the medium, set wing level for the first Monza event with DRS and set our cooling and brake systems for the weekend. We also had suspension developments to compare along with some set-up work. We were able to complete the programme successfully and now have to trawl through the data this evening for the configuration we wish to take into qualifying. The resurfacing since last year seems to have reduced grip a bit in the final sector, but with ideal weather conditions I’m sure we can expect a little track improvement tomorrow and Sunday.”

[Anna]

Force India Mercedes


Force India moved up to sixth place in the constructors’ championship this afternoon as Paul Di Resta delivered a strong drive to take eighth place and score four points in the Italian Grand Prix. Adrian Sutil was unable to finish after encountering a hydraulic issue with the DRS line in the early stages of the race.

Paul di Resta - P8: “Of course I’m really happy to finish eighth today after what hasn’t been the easiest of races. My launch was not great, but the guys around me didn’t get away well either. Going into turn one I could see a Williams coming towards me so I moved as far to the outside as possible, but there was no option but to bump across the chicane. After that we went aggressive with the tyre strategy and I think we extracted as much as we could because our ultimate lap time in race trim was not quite there today. So it’s great to pick up four more points, which helps us move up a place in the championship.”

Adrian Sutil - DNF: “I made a good start, but I was in the middle of a lot of cars and I couldn’t really gain any positions. Then the biggest problem was Liuzzi spinning and hitting the field at turn one. I was on the inside and I had to go into the gravel to avoid the crashed cars, which cost me a lot of time. Fortunately my car was fine with no damage so I was still able to continue. I was running on the medium tyre so things looked okay and I felt points could still be possible. A few laps later the power steering went so I knew I had a problem. I tried to downshift into turn three and I couldn’t so I had to park the car. As we saw with Paul’s result, we missed out on getting two car in the points today.”

Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman and Team Principal: “Another very entertaining race at Monza and a great performance from Paul and the team to finish eighth. We always believed that points were possible, but we had to fight hard and stay out of trouble. Paul did well to avoid a messy first corner and went on to drive a very mature race and beat some cars that were perhaps quicker on absolute pace. The strategy came to us and we made the tyres work to score four important points, which moves us up to sixth position in the constructors’ championship. As for Adrian, he was out of luck today. He lost a lot of time during the first lap, but that soon became academic when his car suffered a hydraulic problem. So we end the European season full of optimism and look forward to racing in Singapore in a couple of weeks’ time.”

[Amanda]

Force India to become Sahara Force India after buy-in
2011 F1 season

October 12, 2011 5:07 pm by Keith Collantine 3 Comments »
Sahara Force India logo

Sahara Force India logo

The Force India team will be renamed Sahara Force India Formula One following a buy-in from the Sahara Group.

Mallya will remain as team principal of the Silverstone-based outfit.

He has sold a 42.5% stake in his team to Subrata Roy’s Sahara Group. Mallya’s United Breweries Group retains 42.5%, with a further 15% held by Michel Mol.

Mallya said: “I am delighted to welcome Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara as Chairman of Sahara Force India.

“It has indeed been a matter of pride for me to put India on the F1 map with Force India and raise the performance of the team to its current levels. The Sahara Group has played a very important role in the development of sport in the country and is an ideal partner to take the Force India F1 Team to greater success in the Formula 1 world championship.”

Subrata Roy said: “The advent of India in this exciting sport has remained a matter of pride for all our countrymen. I feel doubly proud that Sahara is the co-owner of India’s only F1 team and I am sure that through the Sahara Force India F1 Team, we will together bring pride and laurels to our beloved nation.”

Last week he strongly denied rumours the team was up for sale, saying: “As team principal, I will continue to run the team and I have no plans whatsoever to exit.”

The Sahara Group’s businesses include includes television channels, real estate companies, film distribution, tourism services and a cricket team.

Mallya took over the former Spyker team at the end of 2007, re-branding it Force India. The team rose to seventh in the constructors’ championship last year and currently hold sixth place.

[Anna]

2011 end of term report – Force India


69 points, 6th in the constructors’ championship

Tuesday 20 December 2011 - 17h52, by Sandrine Bouchard
Force India took another step forward in 2011. Tenth in 2008, the Silverstone-based team is improving step by step and finished 6th in this year’s World Championship. It was particularly competitive in the second half of the season and almost pipped Renault to fifth place.

Season review

At the start of the year, the team made some changes to its driver line-up, replacing Tonio Liuzzi with Paul di Resta and signing Nico Hulkenberg as third driver. Its VJM04, designed by Andrew Green, was officially unveiled on the 8th of February.

The beginning of the season was a bit difficult for Force India. The team struggled for performance and scored only a few points in the first races. The Indian squad kept its head down and introduced updates on its car. It started to pay off at the British Grand Prix, with Di Resta’s sixth place on the starting grid.

From then on, Force India became stronger and regularly placed its cars in the top ten. From Germany to Brazil, the team scored points on every round bar one – Japan. Its best results came at Singapore – Di Resta 6th, Sutil 8th – and Interlagos – Sutil 6th and Di Resta 8th.

Off track, 2011 was also an important year for the team. In October, the Indian company Sahara acquired 42.5% of the team. Vijay Mallya remains Team Principal and still owns 42.5% of the team. The remaining 15% are owned by Mol.

Conclusion

With 69 points and 6th in the constructors’ standings, Force India has every reason to be proud of its season. It got really strong in the second part of the season and challenged the likes of LRGP and Mercedes on occasions.

The outfit scored only 12 points in the first part of the season and was behind Toro Rosso and Sauber in the standings. However, in the second half of the season, it scored 57 points and passed its rivals in the championship to claim 6th overall.

Expectations

Force India will start 2012 with a new driver line-up. While Paul di Resta will stay with the team, Adrian Sutil has been released and will be replaced by Nico Hulkenberg.

The cash injected by Sahara, the new co-owner of the team, should help the team to move forward. Nonetheless, the winter might be troubled for Vijay Mallya whose airline is on the verge of collapsing. Recent rumours questioned the future of the Indian businessman as Force India’s Team Principal.

Highs
Excellent 2nd half of the season
New co-owner
Best ranking in the championship since 2002

Lows
Slow start
Some erratic strategies
Delayed its 2012 driver line-up announcement

Nextgen-Auto.com marks:
Olivier Ferret : 15/20
D.Thys : 14/20
Sandrine Bouchard : 15/20
Jean-Michel Setbon : 14/20
Average mark on the forum Nextgen-Auto.com : 14/20
Total : 72/100

[kelli52]

Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg will "get exactly the same treatment" in 2012 according to Force India's sporting director Andy Stevenson.

Force India named di Resta and Hulkenberg as its driver line-up in December, with Adrian Sutil leaving the team. As a result both drivers now have only one season of race experience each, although Hulkenberg spent 2011 as the team's reserve driver. Stevenson said that even though di Resta retains his seat for a second year he will have his hands full as he can't expect preferential treatment.

"We've never had a policy here where we have a lead driver," Stevenson told Sky Sports News. "Both drivers get exactly the same treatment; they get exactly the same equipment. Paul will be under pressure. It's his second year within Formula 1 as a full-time driver and it's going to be tough for him. Nico has already proved himself to be very, very quick."

Stevenson also admitted that the new car looked "very, very good" but agreed with technical director Andy Green that its relative competitiveness was unknown.

"It's an evolution. From what I've seen so far it looks very, very good but we have to get it on the track. We know what the figures are - we have confidence in the car we've designed, but we don't know what the guys down the road have done. So until we get to those first tests and actually see what sort of speed other cars are carrying then it's difficult to tell."